phew...
Long week.
On Monday the 4th we had a School Banquet. It was a lot of fun. I actually wasn't looking forward to it very much because everyone wanted to get all dressed up. But I went along with it all and borrowed some clothes from Tim. Everyone said I looked like a professor. I may have picked up more from my old man than I thought. I love you, Papa! Here we are:
Here are the girls:
The guys (I'm scary looking):
And everyone:
The food at On Dish was really good. But even better than that, there was all-you-can-eat ice cream! I loved it. After we ate and everyone was good and happy Tom gave a really nice speech and gave all the students awards:
Doug got a gnarly sausage for the "hits-the-wall-and-falls-asleep-when-he's-hungry" award. Brad got some sunglasses for the "bling bling" award. Keegan got a house for the "bring-everything-you-own-with-you-to-Okinawa" award. Haley got a pillow for the "sleepiest" award. Nicky got a fanta for the "loudest burper' award (gross, I know). Misty got a broom for the "clean freak" award. Joel got a toy van for the "kicked-out-of-the-van-most-for-being-negative" award. Michelle got a gi-joe for the "kindness-to-marines" award. Shannon got the "daredevil" award. Erin got a gun for the "don't-mess-with-me" award (she originally came to Okinawa to study Karate). Aaron got a heart for the "evangelist" award. Djudji got the "kindness" award. Jeremy got a comb for the "most-amazing-hairstyle" award, And I got the "best smelling" award. Tom has been such a blessing to us all, it's amazing how much of his time and prayers he has devoted to us.
Haley really wanted a prom picture. I don't know why. It was all in good fun though.
Tuesday was a normal school day. Just loads of classes as usual.
On Wednesday everything started picking up for the week. We headed over to Okinawa Christian School International where we helped out with their chapel service. The girls played some Christmas Carols and Keegan, Doug, and I led some worship. Then Tom shared a really encouraging devotion out of 1 Samuel 9 where David showed kindness to Mephibosheth and basically saved him out of a desolate land. He related it to how Christ has showed so much kindness to us. 1 Sam. 9 is such a beautiful portion of scripture. Here are the girls singing:
After that we went to Yomitan and had loads of fun jumping in the water. We didn't have towels, or swim shorts. But that never stopped us before!
That night we had church like normal. A nice full day.
Thursday was the calm before the storm. Actually it was more like a mega homework day because everything had to be in by Friday except for two papers that were due on Monday. But we needed to get those done too because the weekend would be so crazy.
Friday night it all hit. A mission team from Living Water (Tom's old Church) came out to help with some out reaches and put on a children's conference thing. So that night we started working with that. Before we started though I got to put the star on top of the Christmas tree. How ironic:
Saturday morning and afternoon we did the kids thing. And that night we went out to Barclay Court to witness. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy going out and meeting people.
Sunday morning was church of course. Jerry, the Pastor from Living Water gave us an encouraging message about walking with Jesus. It was a good morning. We hung out at the church until 2 ish when we went to a park to have loads of fun with some kids. We put on a pirate play, even though every Japanese person thinks I look like Jack Sparrow I don't make a good pirate:
They were so wonderful. Pray that God would give us more opportunities to do things like that next semester! I don't think I have had so much fun with kids before.
Then on Sunday night we had another outreach by Gate 2 street where all the prostitutes and stuff hang out. It wasn't as bad as I expected. We made friends with this cool shop owner named Victor. We tried on loads of hats and stuff in his shop:
Then Tim, Aiyu, Yoshi, and I went to a really good raman place. The best raman I have had since being in Japan by far. I got the salt raman. And there were these eggs in it that blew my mind! Right by the place there was a cool Christmas tree so we took a picture:
Oh, and the picture where my face is all messed up is from that night too. We were walking through a store and stopped at the Apple computers. I was showing off their built-in camera. It had all these wacky settings so Tim, Aiyu, and Yoshi were taking pictures of the pictures after we were done. We also set the one of the pictures to the background. Ridiculous.
On Monday we took a trip up North to Nago. we went to a Pineapple museum. The highlight of that was the loads of free samples. There was pineapple everything! Fresh pineapple, pineapple juice, cake, chocolate, wine, bread, and we could eat as much as we wanted! It was so good!
After that we went to this strange place that felt like a fairy tale. It was this huge japanese house with massive yard full of all kinds of random statues and antiques. It was like a antique place. There was this really creepy kimono room with loads of kimonos hanging on the wall and all over the room, little dolls of japanese girls in kimonos littered the shelves. What made it really creepy was the smell combines with this old music box I cranked up. I wish I could have bought one of the dolls. They were amazing. Sorry Mom, I don't think they would have made it back in one piece... and they were really expensive.
The highlight of that place were the adorable animals though!
Next we went to Expo, the massive aquarium. It has like the second or third largest tank in the world. I didn't shell out the money to go in because I'm coming back next semester, but there was loads of other stuff to do. I watched the dolphin show, checked out the Manatees, played on some massive jungle gym nets, and had a wonderful conversation with Kayo. Sorry, no pictures from there...
We finished off the night by going out to eat at this place near Motobu with Brent. He is another missionary. Lift him and his wife up in prayer real quick if you have time. They have been up there for a while and I think the Lord is going to start blessing their ministry.
And today Pastor Rick from Calvary Chapel Okinawa took all the students out to Yakiniku. It was a massive blessing and I'm still full some 9 hours later. Pray that God would bless him as well.
The lord blessed us with such a wonderful week of ministry. What a privilege we have to serve Him! To know that I am doing exactly what He created me to do. All He asks is that I love Him. Serving Him is just a bonus. But I don't think I could ever be happier than when I am serving the Lord. I can't wait to see what he has for me next!
p.s. none of those pictures were mine. I stole them all from Tom and Haley.
On Monday the 4th we had a School Banquet. It was a lot of fun. I actually wasn't looking forward to it very much because everyone wanted to get all dressed up. But I went along with it all and borrowed some clothes from Tim. Everyone said I looked like a professor. I may have picked up more from my old man than I thought. I love you, Papa! Here we are:
Here are the girls:
The guys (I'm scary looking):
And everyone:
The food at On Dish was really good. But even better than that, there was all-you-can-eat ice cream! I loved it. After we ate and everyone was good and happy Tom gave a really nice speech and gave all the students awards:
Doug got a gnarly sausage for the "hits-the-wall-and-falls-asleep-when-he's-hungry" award. Brad got some sunglasses for the "bling bling" award. Keegan got a house for the "bring-everything-you-own-with-you-to-Okinawa" award. Haley got a pillow for the "sleepiest" award. Nicky got a fanta for the "loudest burper' award (gross, I know). Misty got a broom for the "clean freak" award. Joel got a toy van for the "kicked-out-of-the-van-most-for-being-negative" award. Michelle got a gi-joe for the "kindness-to-marines" award. Shannon got the "daredevil" award. Erin got a gun for the "don't-mess-with-me" award (she originally came to Okinawa to study Karate). Aaron got a heart for the "evangelist" award. Djudji got the "kindness" award. Jeremy got a comb for the "most-amazing-hairstyle" award, And I got the "best smelling" award. Tom has been such a blessing to us all, it's amazing how much of his time and prayers he has devoted to us.
Haley really wanted a prom picture. I don't know why. It was all in good fun though.
Tuesday was a normal school day. Just loads of classes as usual.
On Wednesday everything started picking up for the week. We headed over to Okinawa Christian School International where we helped out with their chapel service. The girls played some Christmas Carols and Keegan, Doug, and I led some worship. Then Tom shared a really encouraging devotion out of 1 Samuel 9 where David showed kindness to Mephibosheth and basically saved him out of a desolate land. He related it to how Christ has showed so much kindness to us. 1 Sam. 9 is such a beautiful portion of scripture. Here are the girls singing:
After that we went to Yomitan and had loads of fun jumping in the water. We didn't have towels, or swim shorts. But that never stopped us before!
That night we had church like normal. A nice full day.
Thursday was the calm before the storm. Actually it was more like a mega homework day because everything had to be in by Friday except for two papers that were due on Monday. But we needed to get those done too because the weekend would be so crazy.
Friday night it all hit. A mission team from Living Water (Tom's old Church) came out to help with some out reaches and put on a children's conference thing. So that night we started working with that. Before we started though I got to put the star on top of the Christmas tree. How ironic:
Saturday morning and afternoon we did the kids thing. And that night we went out to Barclay Court to witness. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy going out and meeting people.
Sunday morning was church of course. Jerry, the Pastor from Living Water gave us an encouraging message about walking with Jesus. It was a good morning. We hung out at the church until 2 ish when we went to a park to have loads of fun with some kids. We put on a pirate play, even though every Japanese person thinks I look like Jack Sparrow I don't make a good pirate:
They were so wonderful. Pray that God would give us more opportunities to do things like that next semester! I don't think I have had so much fun with kids before.
Then on Sunday night we had another outreach by Gate 2 street where all the prostitutes and stuff hang out. It wasn't as bad as I expected. We made friends with this cool shop owner named Victor. We tried on loads of hats and stuff in his shop:
Then Tim, Aiyu, Yoshi, and I went to a really good raman place. The best raman I have had since being in Japan by far. I got the salt raman. And there were these eggs in it that blew my mind! Right by the place there was a cool Christmas tree so we took a picture:
Oh, and the picture where my face is all messed up is from that night too. We were walking through a store and stopped at the Apple computers. I was showing off their built-in camera. It had all these wacky settings so Tim, Aiyu, and Yoshi were taking pictures of the pictures after we were done. We also set the one of the pictures to the background. Ridiculous.
On Monday we took a trip up North to Nago. we went to a Pineapple museum. The highlight of that was the loads of free samples. There was pineapple everything! Fresh pineapple, pineapple juice, cake, chocolate, wine, bread, and we could eat as much as we wanted! It was so good!
After that we went to this strange place that felt like a fairy tale. It was this huge japanese house with massive yard full of all kinds of random statues and antiques. It was like a antique place. There was this really creepy kimono room with loads of kimonos hanging on the wall and all over the room, little dolls of japanese girls in kimonos littered the shelves. What made it really creepy was the smell combines with this old music box I cranked up. I wish I could have bought one of the dolls. They were amazing. Sorry Mom, I don't think they would have made it back in one piece... and they were really expensive.
The highlight of that place were the adorable animals though!
Next we went to Expo, the massive aquarium. It has like the second or third largest tank in the world. I didn't shell out the money to go in because I'm coming back next semester, but there was loads of other stuff to do. I watched the dolphin show, checked out the Manatees, played on some massive jungle gym nets, and had a wonderful conversation with Kayo. Sorry, no pictures from there...
We finished off the night by going out to eat at this place near Motobu with Brent. He is another missionary. Lift him and his wife up in prayer real quick if you have time. They have been up there for a while and I think the Lord is going to start blessing their ministry.
And today Pastor Rick from Calvary Chapel Okinawa took all the students out to Yakiniku. It was a massive blessing and I'm still full some 9 hours later. Pray that God would bless him as well.
The lord blessed us with such a wonderful week of ministry. What a privilege we have to serve Him! To know that I am doing exactly what He created me to do. All He asks is that I love Him. Serving Him is just a bonus. But I don't think I could ever be happier than when I am serving the Lord. I can't wait to see what he has for me next!
p.s. none of those pictures were mine. I stole them all from Tom and Haley.